Our work with Manchester's homeless community

Posted 22nd January 2018
by SockShop

This winter we have worked with five homeless charities in Manchester, providing them with a year's supply of socks (20,000 pairs!) in order to help them give Manchester's homeless community some of the support they need.

Socks are extremely important to the homeless community, but are very rarely donated, which means they are in seriously short supply.

Warehouse Manager Pete gathering socks to add to our donation

Why are they so important?Well, how would you feel wearing the same pair of socks for weeks or months on end? What about if you walked many miles a day, meaning your feet were often sweaty and wet? What about if you couldn’t let them dry because you were scared to take off your shoes in case they got stolen? And what about if, as a result, you started to develop abscesses on your feet… and even trench foot?

Trench foot is a condition that is associated with World War I. Think about that for a second. That was a war that took place 100 years ago. It should not affect anyone in society today.

Thankfully, we’re in a unique position with access to the world’s largest sock selection to help make a big difference.

So we teamed up with with Street Support Network to identify and partner with the local charities that are most in need of new, clean pairs of socks to distribute.

As a result, we decided to make our donation to the following charities, whose work in Manchester is so important:

Barnabus

Coffee4Craig

Centrepoint

Lifeshare

Urban Village Medical Practice

To help spread the word about the need to provide the homeless community with socks, we also teamed up with some celebrities who are passionate about ending homelessness.

Actor Maxine Peake, a Lifeshare patron, is supporting the campaign. She said: “I would like to thank SockShop for their kind donation to help keep vulnerable rough sleepers and other clients warm in these harsh winter months. Let’s make it our New Year’s resolution to be more compassionate to all of our city’s citizens. None of us are immune to the harsh twists and turns in life.”

Boxer Ricky Hatton MBE, a patron for Barnabus, said: “It's distressing to see so many people sleeping rough in our city - Manchester’s homeless community needs our help. Something as simple as a pair of socks can make a big difference, so I fully support this generous campaign.”

Hollyoaks star Jazmine Franks, who is another Barnabus supporter and frequent volunteer, added: “Through my work with Barnabus I’ve spent time with many members of the homeless community, all of whom have completely different back stories. It’s so important to make sure we do our best to make sure everybody in the city has the basic comforts they need to stay warm and dry all year round. I’m delighted that SockShop have acted to help the most vulnerable in Manchester.”

We’re happy to be able to help in any way we can. Being based in Greater Manchester, we have seen, with great concern, the homelessness problem grow over the years. Although we do regularly make donations to charity, this year we wanted to do something that would have as big an impact as possible.

Helping these five charities to ensure they no longer have to worry about their all-important sock provision over the next 12 months is something we are extremely happy to be able to do.

Our partner charitiesClick below to find out about the charities we've been working with.